Point of Divergence
by Advent of Shadows
Summary: When Jiraiya returns to the Leaf and discovers that Naruto is taking part in the Chunin Exams, he makes a decision that would profoundly change Naruto's life. Rated M for safety.
1. New Sensei

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If I did, it would be composed of stick figures... horribly drawn stick figures at that. Until it looks like that, I won't post any more disclaimers for this story.

Summary: When Jiraiya returns to the Leaf and discovers that Naruto is taking part in the Chunin Exams, he makes a decision that would profoundly change Naruto's life. He decides to train Naruto for the Chunin Exams instead of training him to use the fox's chakra and to summon.

Pairing: This story does not actually have a pairing. It was intended to be Naruto/Tayuya, but I decided to split this story into this and a sequel. The pairing will begin in the sequel. Nonetheless, I am putting Naruto/Tayuya as the pairing.

Warnings: This story is rated M more as a safety net than anything.

Please note that this first chapter is very similar to canon. I start my divergence fics like this every time.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

It was a warm day on the first of July when Naruto Uzumaki ran into the hospital with fierce determination in his eyes. The determination normally always showed itself when he was going to try to get stronger or overcome a challenge. Running up to the nurses' station, he asked, "Hey, where's Sasuke's room?"

"Sorry. He's not allowed visitors." the nurse at the computer said, a bit more cheerfully than one would expect given her response.

"What? No visitors! Are you kidding me?" Naruto asked as if it was a crime against humanity.

"Those are the rules." the nurse said sympathetically, though the cheerful tone in her voice did not falter at all.

"Come on lady." Naruto said, hoping she would let him go and see Sasuke regardless.

"Naruto, this is a hospital. Keep it down." Kakashi Hatake said as he entered the room.

"Huh? Oh, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto exclaimed as he ran over to his sensei. "I'm glad to see you. I've got to ask you a favor."

"Stop right there. I already know what you're going to ask, so I've been looking for someone who could oversee your training for the final rounds." Kakashi answered as nonchalantly as ever.

"Why can't you train me?" Naruto asked, not understanding why his sensei could not train him.

"I have other matters to handle. I don't have time to deal with you, Naruto." Kakashi said. After knowing Naruto for the past several months, he had come to the realization that he had to be quite blunt if he wanted Naruto to understand him.

"You're going to train Sasuke, aren't you?" Naruto accused him.

Kakashi sighed but did not deny it. His next words actually confirmed it. "Now, now… don't complain. I found you an even better teacher than me."

"Well, who is it?" Naruto asked, realizing that there was no way that he could get Kakashi to train him after all. The jonin seemed to make his mind up and stick with his decision quite adamantly.

"It is I."

Turning out, Naruto was surprised to see Ebisu, the special jonin that had been training his younger friend Konohamaru before he was even put in Team Seven under Kakashi.

"You! You're the closet pervert!" Naruto said pointing at the special jonin.

"Such insolence…." the special jonin said as he adjusted his sunglasses with his middle finger.

"You're kidding me! Of all the guys you could've picked, you picked this guy to train me! This is a joke. He's weaker than I am." Naruto said, looking back at Kakashi. "I'm serious. He saw my Harem Jutsu once and passed out!"

"Harem Jutsu?" Kakashi asked in confusion. He could not recall the blond ever using a jutsu by that name.

"It's nothing. It's a little joke we shared." Ebisu said as he covered the blond's mouth with his left hand. "Shut up about that, you little brat." The last part was said in a whisper.

"Well, well, well… I had no idea you two knew each other. Imagine that." Kakashi said looking between the special jonin and genin. He had not expected Naruto to know any special jonin by name outside of the proctors for the Chunin Exams. Knowing them personally… now that was an ever bigger surprise.

"Yes, we go way back." Ebisu said as he removed his hand from Naruto's mouth.

"I still don't get why it has to be him." Naruto said. He thought about saying something else about the Harem Jutsu, but he decided against it. If Kakashi would not train him, then he either had to train by himself or get trained by Ebisu. As much as he did not like Ebisu or see him as a good ninja, Naruto figured that he would be able to learn more from a more experienced ninja. Still, he did hope to get a different ninja to help train him, so he added, "I mean… isn't there anybody else."

"If it hadn't been Kakashi who asked this favor, I would never have considered training you." Ebisu said with a shake of his head.

"Well then don't!" Naruto fired back, getting angry at the special jonin. His boiling point seemed to be as low as it ever was.

"Come on you two; calm down. Look Naruto, you're wrong about Ebisu-sensei. He's a very talented tutor that only trains the elite. Frankly, he's a better teacher than I am." Kakashi said, hoping to diffuse the situation and reassure the young blond. "Anyways Naruto, out of all the members of your team, you are the one whose basic skills need the most work. That's what I want you to focus on this time around."

"Hold on a second! Are you saying that I'm not as good as Sasuke and Sakura?" Naruto demanded. He felt like he had just been insulted, something that Kakashi never did.

Kakashi sighed. "Naruto, no matter how many jutsu you master, the fundamentals are… well, fundamental. And yours could be improved. So if you really want to get stronger, then just stay quiet and pay attention. Alright Ebisu-sensei, I leave him in your capable hands."

"I will do what I can." Ebisu said. After Kakashi was out of ear shot, he added, "Well come on. Let's get started."

Annoyed, Naruto walked out of the hospital with Ebisu.

"Now Naruto, after going everything that Kakashi has told me, it seems that your greatest weakness is chakra control." Ebisu said as they walked down the street.

"Well if I'm so bad at it, then why have there been times when I've done better than they have?" Naruto demanded. He was feeling insulted once again. He would not have been surprised if Ebisu had insulted him, in all honesty, though.

"That's not the same thing. That's only because you have reserves of energy and stamina that are hardly even human." Ebisu said, thinking of the fact that Naruto had the strongest tailed beast sealed within him. Seeing that Naruto caught on and was looking a little down at the reminded, he said, "The point is that we both know you're strong, but you could be so much stronger. And I can show you how."

"Do you really mean?" Naruto asked, feeling hopeful that Ebisu might not be such a bad trainer after all.

"I not only mean it, I guarantee it. Now if you're ready, let's begin." Ebisu said.

And with that, they headed to the village's hot springs, much to the blond's confusion.

* * *

"What are we doing here? Are you going to train me to wash behind my ears?" Naruto asked sarcastically as they arrived at the hot springs.

"Not quite… but the water is part of your training." Ebisu said with a smirk.

"What?" Naruto asked, clearly confused as to what Ebisu meant.

"Right here. This is the place." Ebisu said a few minutes later as he brought Ebisu to one of the hot springs outside of the main bathing area.

"A bath? Are you kidding?" Naruto asked, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Don't take that tone with me. Like I told you before, this is all part of your training." Ebisu said with a sigh. He was finding himself more and more surprised with the boy's impatience, despite the fact that he had every right to expect it.

"Okay, maybe you should take it from the top. What am I supposed to be training again?" Naruto asked, trying to understand what exactly Ebisu was talking about.

"I'm going to teach you how to walk on water." Ebisu said with a smirk, enjoying the stupefied look on the boy's face.

"Do you seriously expect me to believe that you know how to walk on water?" Naruto deadpanned.

"Of course I do." Ebisu said like it was the most natural thing in the world. "According to what Kakashi told me, you already know how to climb trees without your hands. This is similar. The only major difference is that unlike tree climbing where you had to maintain a steady flow of chakra in your feet, you must constantly adjust the flow of chakra to walk on water. It is not a stationary object after all. This is obviously more difficult, but it will help boost your chakra control even more."

To demonstrate, Ebisu walked on top of the hot spring as if it was solid ground. Looking back, he said, "Now, you try."

On his first attempt… and second, third, fourth, and fifth attempts… Naruto fell into the hot water, finding motivation to try to stay atop the water.

He was actually doing pretty well when he heard Ebisu say something to someone else.

"Old man, I will not allow disreputable behavior happening around my student. I will not allow it."

Naruto looked just in time to see Ebisu run towards a white haired man that was peeking on the girl's side of the hot springs.

Then in an instant, the man appeared to be sitting on a rather large frog. Turning to face Ebisu, the frog shot its tongue out, grabbed Ebisu by the ankle, and slammed him down onto the ground.

"Quiet you fool. Do you want us to get caught?" the man asked the unconscious Ebisu.

"Who do you think you are? You just flattened my trainer." Naruto asked, looking towards the old man intently.

"I'm glad you asked." the old man said as he stood up and did a few kabuki poses on the back of the frog. "I'm the hermit of Mount Myoboku. That is right. It is I, the Toad Mountain Sage, Jiraiya."

"What… Toad Sage?" Naruto asked, unsure of what a toad sage was.

"Exactly." the man simply said.

"Well, what are you going to do about this, you Pervy Sage? This guy is supposed to be training me, and you go and laid him out flat." Naruto asked in anger.

"Well, he shouldn't have interrupted with my research." the Toad Sage said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Your research?" Naruto asked, completely caught off guard.

"Yes. You see, I'm a novelist. I am a writer of great books… like this." Jiraiya said as he pulled out an orange book similar to what Naruto always saw Kakashi reading.

"What? You wrote that?" Naruto asked, realizing that it was actually the same book that Kakashi read during their training.

"Yes, I see you know it!" Jiraiya said, feeling happy to hear that his book was already well known, despite not being in paperback yet.

"You call that pervy trash a novel?" Naruto asked, shaking his head. "Research? Yeah right. That's just an excuse for you to peek at girls at the bathhouse."

As he said that, Naruto's voice grew so loud that the girls in the hot springs heard it. Realizing that they were getting peeked on, they screamed and left as fast as they could get dressed.

"Look at what you've done! You've ruined my peeking… I mean my research." Jiraiya said in anguish.

"You're just a dirty old man." Naruto said with a snort.

"There's nothing dirty about it. I'm just an artist that is inspired by beauty. That's all!" Jiraiya said in denial.

"Yeah right, whatever… like anyone believes that. Who cares anyway? What about my training?" Naruto said as he looked at his unconscious temporary sensei.

"Your training? You mean the walking on water technique?" Jiraiya asked, looking interested.

"You can do it?" Naruto asked, receiving a nod from the older man. "Okay then! It's up to you to teach it to me. You at least owe me that."

Jiraiya considered saying no right away, but he did not say it. The girls had been scared away from the hot springs, so he was unlikely to get anymore research done that day. So he said, "I'll help you with the exercise. You just better learn fast."

And with that, Jiraiya led him away from the hot springs.

* * *

"Now, let's begin your training." Jiraiya said as they reached a small lake that was located a couple miles away from the stone faces of Hokage Monument. They were still on the actual mountain though. "Go ahead and show me what you've got so far."

"Okay." Naruto said as he walked up to the lake and put his hands together in the ram hand sign. "Here it goes." he added once he had his chakra focused. He stepped onto the surface of the water and was only able to stay atop it for about thirty seconds before he fell in, getting soaked.

Jiraiya busted up laughing at the sight of Naruto falling in the water. As he stopped laughing, he said, "You really do need help, don't you?"

Grumbling, Naruto said, "I should've known to take my clothes off." With that, he removed his jacket, shirt, pants, and sandals, leaving him in only his boxers.

"Hey, go on and build your chakra up one more time." Jiraiya said, looking carefully at the blond's stomach.

"Can't I dry off a little first?" Naruto asked in annoyance.

"No. Do it now." Jiraiya ordered.

"Fine." Naruto muttered as he did as Jiraiya commanded.

Not long after Naruto started focusing his chakra, Jiraiya exclaimed, "Wow! Amazing!"

"What?" Naruto asked in confusion.

"You have no excess body fat. How do you do it?" Jiraiya asked, while thinking, 'He gets distracted just as easily as the Old Man said he would.'

"Do you mind old man? I'm trying to concentrate right here." Naruto asked, feeling far more annoyed at the super pervert than he had earlier.

"Oh, sorry about that. Go right ahead." Jiraiya said, not sounding remotely sorry.

Grumbling, Naruto focused once more, and built up his chakra, causing the seal that held the fox to appear.

'So, the seal looks intact still.' Jiraiya thought. He was glad that the seal had not faltered since he last checked up on it. 'But this new addition to it… a Five Pronged Seal. That explains his lack of chakra control. It would make his chakra unstable and nearly impossible to control to any extent.'

"Cut it out. That tickles." Naruto said, making Jiraiya aware that he had subconsciously placed a hand on top of the seal.

"Oh, sorry about that." Jiraiya said as he removed his hand. He continued to look at the seal though. 'This definitely wasn't here the last time I checked up on the seal. It's the formula of someone else. By the crude nature of it, I'd have to guess that it was Orochimaru.'

"Okay. Raise your arms up high over your head and keep your eyes closed." Jiraiya said a moment later, realizing what he had to do.

"Why?" Naruto asked in confusion once more.

"It's a trust exercise. Go ahead. Raise them high." Jiraiya said. He knew that it would take longer to explain to the boy than it would to simply unseal it with a fake excuse.

Once Naruto did as he was told to, the Toad Sage focused chakra into his finger tips. Jiraiya thought, 'Five Pronged Seal Release' as he slammed his right hand into the seal, negating Orochimaru's seal. It also had the effect of sending Naruto flying backwards about ten feet.

"What the hell was that for?" Naruto asked as he held his stomach and grunted in pain.

"I was just hitting a pressure point to make you relax. Go ahead. Try the exercise again." Jiraiya said nonchalantly with a small smile.

Shaking his head, Naruto walked over to the lake and began to focus his chakra. "Wow, that's weird." he said as he realized that controlling it felt easier. Stepping onto the water, he quickly saw that he was able to stay at the top of the surface with very little difficulty. "Look at that! I'm doing it. Just don't ask how. Wow, it's a piece of cake."

As he said that, he was practically dancing on the surface of the water.

'Well, look at that. He's already gotten the hang of it.' Jiraiya thought. 'I could begin to teach him how to control the fox's chakra, but there's no rush on it really. I hadn't expected him to be taking part in the Chunin Exams when I came back. Maybe I should help him prepare for that instead.'

"Hey kid, if you want me to continue to train you, be at the Third Training Ground tomorrow morning at eight. You can always stick with that Ebisu guy if you don't want to learn anything else from me." Jiraiya said as he turned to leave.

Needless to say, Naruto planned on going to the Third Training Ground the following day.

* * *

Later on that night, Jiraiya was standing on top of one of the buildings in the Leaf Village, looking at the night sky. Ebisu walked over and stood next to him.

"Sorry about earlier, Ebisu. I didn't mean to steal your student away from you." Jiraiya said as he saw the special jonin.

"Oh, that's of little importance. Lord Hokage has been searching far and wide for you, on the other hand. We were just beginning to think you would never be found. But then you showed up here of all places... right in front of me. Lord Hokage will be pleased to see that you are here." Ebisu replied.

"Have you told him that I am here yet?" Jiraiya asked curiously.

"No." Ebisu answered simply.

"Very good. It's better that way." Jiraiya said, appearing to relax.

"You're after Orochimaru, aren't you?" Ebisu asked hopeful.

"No, I can't say that I, unfortunately." Jiraiya said, much to Ebisu's surprise. "The only thing that brought me here was the chance for doing some research for my next book. I have no desire to get involved in any of that other business."

"You can't be serious. Orochimaru is one of the Sannin and can only be stopped by the power of another… your power, Master Jiraiya." Ebisu said in disbelief.

Jiraiya simply looked at Ebisu in the eyes. No emotion could be seen in the Toad Sage, at least not by someone of Ebisu's skill.


	2. The Sage's Training

**2. The Sage's Training**

"Good. You're on time." Jiraiya said as Naruto entered the same training field where both shinobi had undergone the Bell Test. Of course, there was a not so small time gap in between their tests.

"I'm not about to slack off. I have to get stronger if I'm going to beat Neji Hyuga." Naruto said with determination.

"I'm not interested in helping you beat him." Jiraiya said, cutting off the blond. "I personally don't care if you lose your fight or win the whole tournament. You can still stay as a genin, regardless of how well you do."

Though Naruto was firm in his desire to win the tournament, he was a little worried when he heard Jiraiya's words.

"Last night I watched the recorded video of the preliminaries. From what I saw, only three of the shinobi that take part in the preliminaries would have been promoted if it had been the finals. Those three are Shikamaru Nara, Shino Aburame, and Gaara of the Sand." Jiraiya said. "Unlike most of the contestants, they showed what you would look for in a chunin. The Nara used strategy to beat his opponent with a single jutsu, the Aburame used strategy to disable his opponent's ninjutsu before defeating him, and that Gaara kid… well, he's something else. With that said, you'd stand a better chance against Shikamaru or Shino than you would against Neji Hyuga. When it comes right down to it, he is probably as deserving as they are for promotion, but his match was too one-sided for him to even need to use strategy."

"So how am I supposed to beat him?" Naruto asked.

"Again, I am not going to teach you to beat him. I'll give you the skills to become a chunin. Once you have them, you'll either figure out how to beat him or you'll lose. I can't give you all the answers. It wouldn't be fair to you if I did." Jiraiya said.

"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked.

"If you were promoted to the rank of chunin as a direct result of my guidance, then you would have only succeeded because I was there to tell you what to do. Imagine what would happen if you had to lead a mission with your friends as your subordinates right after that. How would you feel if they died because you were unprepared for your role?" Jiraiya explained.

Naruto was beginning to understand Jiraiya's reasoning at that point, though he certainly did not enjoy the thought of it.

"The philosophical explanations are at an end now though. It's time to begin your training. For the next thirty days, you will be going through the hardest training that you have ever gone through." Jiraiya said in complete seriousness. "You will have my full, undivided attention every day from eight to four. There will be no breaks during that time. You've got a far ways to go in a short amount of time. And trust me, you will get there."

Naruto was unsure what to think of his sensei at that moment, but he knew one thing for sure. He was going to get a great deal stronger under the man before him.

He did not even understand how true that was at the time.

* * *

It was driving him nuts. Three weeks had passed, and his teacher, apparently one of the legendary Sannin, had not taught him a single ninjutsu technique. Instead of teaching him new techniques, he had him continue to work harder and harder on things that he already knew how to do.

The entire first week of training had composed of Naruto sparring with a shadow clone. That would not have been so bad, but Jiraiya had also insisted that they spar while standing on the river. Oh, and the real Naruto had to wear twenty-five pound weights on each limb.

Naruto was still unable to comprehend how Jiraiya could claim to train him when all he was doing was making him spar against a clone that was not hindered by weights.

After the first week, he had thought that maybe the training would get better, especially after Jiraiya told him that they would be doing something different.

Apparently, different was a code word used to describe things like walking up a rock face with a rope tied around his waist that connected to a hundred pound rock.

If he thought that the second week was tough, he thought that the third week was hell though. He had been given another version of the Bell Test where Naruto was trying to get a single bell from Jiraiya. The main difference was that Jiraiya had told him that the exercise would last eight hours a day until Naruto managed to get the bell or a week passed. Needless to say, he never got the bell from Jiraiya.

Naruto was not sure how he would even hope to beat Neji if he did not learn a few new jutsu. He only had a week until the finals left to train too, which made him even more nervous.

"Naruto, you've worn those weights for three weeks so far. I want you to wear them until you are about to go to bed the night before the finals." Jiraiya said as they met up on the first day of their last week of training. "Keep that in mind right now. I'd hate for you to forget that they were on when you went to fight the Hyuga."

At the last part, Naruto could not help but scowl at his teacher. "How do you expect me to beat him at all? Even with the speed I'll gain from the weights, I can't match Bushy Brows, and Neji has beaten him every time that they've fought."

"I'm still waiting for you to tell me how you will beat him." Jiraiya said with a grin. "You don't expect me to just give you everything that you need to win without you asking for it, do you?"

Naruto blinked in surprise at that. Then he took a deep breath, already beginning to understand what Jiraiya was saying. "I can't fight him with taijutsu. He'll flatten me. And I can't use genjutsu, so the only thing left is ninjutsu."

"So, you want to learn some ninjutsu, now do you?" Jiraiya asked.

"Yes, I do." Naruto said with resolve. "I almost lost against Kiba in the preliminaries because all I can do is the Shadow Clone Jutsu. His taijutsu and clan techniques had me almost beaten. I only won in the end because I wouldn't give up."

"The will to never give up is as strong as any jutsu." Jiraiya said with a nod of his head. "And you are right. You won because you would not give up. In the end, you came up with a strategy and beat him with your clones."

Naruto appeared to absorb that for a while, only being broken out of his train of thoughts when Jiraiya spoke again.

"When it comes to the Hyuga clan, few can win without ninjutsu. It's an area of combat that few members of their clan practice because of the amount of time it takes to master their Gentle Fist style of taijutsu. Given that you are fighting the prodigy of the Hyuga clan, I'd say that you were right to say that you need ninjutsu." Jiraiya said as he removed a scroll from his haori. Handing it to the blond, he said, "This scroll does not contain a ninjutsu technique. Instead, it contains the basics of fuinjutsu. While it might not help you against the Hyuga, it certainly won't hurt to study it a little at night. With fuinjutsu, the sealing arts, your strategically options are nearly limitless."

Naruto took the scroll and put it in his pack without question. He was beginning to see what Jiraiya was talking about when he said that he would make him strong. In addition to that, he recalled Jiraiya mentioning that the kunoichi by the name of Tenten used fuinjutsu in her attack against the Sand's fan using kunoichi. Her attacks had seemed quite useful after all.

"Now, I want you to take this card and channel your chakra into it." Jiraiya said as he handed Naruto a small piece of paper that was thicker than typical paper.

"Why?" Naruto asked as he looked at it. Most people did not tell him to channel chakra into paper.

"Just do it." Jiraiya said as he shook his head. The boy only seemed to question him occasionally at that point, which was better than when they first started training together.

Doing as the Toad Sage asked, Naruto saw the paper split in symmetrical halves.

"Well, that's good news." Jiraiya said with a grin. "You're a wind type shinobi."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"Well, you're friend Sasuke is a fire type. He is naturally gifted with fire ninjutsu as all members of the Uchiha clan were. You are naturally gifted with wind style ninjutsu. I'm not a wind type myself, but I know a few low ranked wind ninjutsu. That is why this is good news." Jiraiya said as he thought back to teaching Nagato the few wind style techniques that he knew when he was a younger man. That had been a little over twenty-five years ago though.

"What good is wind? All it's good for is blowing." Naruto said in frustration. He wished that he had a cool element like fire or lightning.

Hearing Naruto's last comment, Jiraiya thought of how such a line would be handled in one of his books. Unfortunately, there were no busty kunoichi around to show Naruto that blowing was actually quite useful. Alas, he would have to do it the old-fashioned way.

"Yeah, I'm sure you wouldn't like to be able to use wind like that. I mean, you could propel shuriken and kunai much faster with a single jutsu. And sure, you could send a massive ball of wind flying that could knock down trees and buildings, but who would want that? I suppose the additional cutting abilities wouldn't appeal to you either. I mean, why would you want to be able to slice your enemies in half with a single movement of your finger?" Jiraiya asked rhetorically. He was unsurprised at the effect his words had on Naruto.

"Seriously? You can do all of that?" Naruto asked, feeling excited at the prospects.

"Sure, you could. But, the cutting aspects only come with higher ranked wind ninjutsu. I don't know any above C-rank, so all I can show you are ones that propel your shuriken and kunai, that stop shuriken and kunai from hitting you, and knock your enemies on their asses." Jiraiya said with a nonchalant shrug.

"Please teach me them." Naruto said.

Grinning once again, Jiraiya saw that he had Naruto eager to learn the techniques.

"The first technique that I will teach you is called the Wind Style: Great Breakthrough. It is the wind style version of the Fireball Jutsu." Jiraiya said as he faced away from Naruto. "The hand signs are tiger, ox, dog, rabbit, and snake. As you make the hand signs, inhale deeply. Once you form the last hand sign, push your chakra up through your mouth and exhale once the chakra reaches it."

With that, Jiraiya showed Naruto how to do it and exhaled a gust of wind from his mouth that literally uprooted ten trees in the part of the forest that he aimed it towards.

Seeing the jutsu made him realize that Orochimaru had hit him with it in the Forest of Death. It was what had separated Naruto from his team.

"Now, it's your turn to try." Jiraiya said.

Nodding, Naruto began to form the hand signs.

All the while, he was thinking, 'Neji's not going to stand a chance against me. I'll make him pay for hurting Hinata.'

Anyone who knew Naruto would know that he wanted to get back at Neji. No one hurt the friends of Naruto Uzumaki without feeling pain after all.

* * *

**Author's Note:** I condensed Naruto's training in a single chapter, despite my original intention of two. The reason behind this is because I don't want everyone to know the full extent of his new abilities. I did hint at some of the jutsu that he is going to learn, but Naruto will be learning more than just the three wind ninjutsu that Jiraiya spoke of.

On another note, I have removed the poll from my profile about the pairing. I ended up picking the kunoichi among the top three that I personally like most and felt fit with the story best. As a result, this story is now Naruto/Tayuya.

But anyways, thanks for reading and please review. Also, any questions about the story can be placed in reviews or private messages. Anonymous questions will not be answered.


	3. The Finals Begin: Naruto vs Neji

**3. The Finals Begin: Naruto vs Neji**

Naruto took a deep breath as he looked through the doorway at the arena where the contestants were already gathering.

The arena looked relatively simple with a wide open space to fight with a tree off to the side. It seemed that they were aiming to make the arena difficult fair to all parties. If any water-using shinobi had entered the exams, then they would have been out of lack in the finals.

What surprised Naruto the most was the fact that he was the second to last one to show up. Everyone other than Dosu, the Sound ninja that Shikamaru was supposed to fight, was already there, even Sasuke.

Deciding to get it over with, he walked into the light, revealing the most noticeable change about him. That morning, Jiraiya woke him up with a gift. That gift was a new set of clothes.

Everyone's eyes turned to Naruto as he entered, for he wore very little orange at all that day.

He was wearing black sandals, black pants with a shuriken holster at each side and a ninja pack at the back of his left hip, a black ninja mesh shirt, a long sleeve black jacket with three slender orange stripes running down each sleeve, and a black banded forehead protector.

"You look different." Shikamaru said as Naruto walked over and joined the other participants. "Where'd you get the new clothes?"

"My new sensei gave them to me." Naruto said as he glanced at Sasuke. "Where's your opponent?"

"I don't know." Shikamaru said. "It's a drag, but maybe I'll get lucky and won't have to fight an extra round."

"Quiet you too." the special jonin that stood before them said. Unlike the proctor of the preliminaries, the one before them had his bandana style forehead protector backwards and had a senbon in his mouth. "Stand up straight and present yourself proudly to the spectators."

Looking up and around, Naruto saw the stands where all the spectators were. They were quite a bit higher than the contestants, likely to prevent stray jutsu or ninja tools from harming them.

"Welcome all and I offer our deepest thanks for coming to the Village Hidden in the Leaves for the Chunin Selection Exams. We have come to the final competition between the eight candidates that made it through the preliminaries. We ask that no one leaves until all of the matches have been completed. Now, everyone enjoy." the Third Hokage said. Though he was in the area where the kages typically sat for the duration Chunin Exams, everyone could hear him.

"Oh, there's one more thing before we get started." the special jonin told the contestants as he pulled out a piece of paper from his flak jacket. "There's been one key change to the matchups. Dosu has withdrawn, changing the fourth match to Shikamaru Nara of the Leaf and Temari of the Sand."

Shikamaru felt relieved to know that he would only have to fight one match, though he was still annoyed that he had to fight a kunoichi.

"The terrain's different, but the rules are the same as in the preliminaries. That, of course, is that there are no rules. The match ends when one candidate admits defeat or dies. That being said, I can stop any match that I believe has a clean and determined winner. No arguments are permitted. Understood?" the special jonin, Genma, asked. When everyone nodded, he said, "These are the two opponents for the first match: Naruto Uzumaki and Neji Hyuga. Those two stay. The rest of you can go to the waiting area."

As soon as he said that, the other six contestants left the battle field and went to the waiting area.

Once they were gone, Neji looked at Naruto, who had been looking at him for the past few minutes with anger in his eyes. "Do you have anything to say to me?"

"No… I'll let my fists do the talking." Naruto said as he balled both of his hands into fists.

"Begin!" Genma said, hoping to prevent a dialogue, which would only take up time.

"You'll never succeed. Fate is on my side. Why else would I have such an inferior opponent?" Neji asked rhetorically.

"I'm glad fate's not on my side. She must really hate you to put you up against me." Naruto said as he quickly removed three shuriken from each of his holsters and threw them at Neji. He then slammed his palms together like he was praying. "Wind Style: Gale Palm"

Neji actually looked a little surprised when the shuriken were propelled at him at a very fast rate of speed. He was able to jump out of the way in time though.

"You've learned a jutsu, it seems. Perhaps you aren't a one trick pony after all." Neji said as he activated his Byakugan. He had a feeling that he would need it against Naruto, though he did not know why.

"Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu" Naruto said as he made his trademark hand sign. In an instant, forty shadow clones were surrounding Neji.

"Perhaps you are after all." Neji said as he prepared to face the shadow clones.

Naruto nodded his head, ignoring Neji's retort. As he did, the shadow clones attacked Neji, resulting in the Hyuga fighting them off with relative ease. That was not why Naruto had created them though.

Only a few of his shadow clones were left when Naruto formed the snake hand sign and exhaled a gust of wind.

Though the gust of wind was smaller and weaker than Jiraiya's, it was quite fast. The best part about it was that Neji was unable to avoid it. Being able to see chakra did not allow him to move at supersonic speeds to avoid fast gusts of wind shooting at him after all.

The remaining shadow clones were destroyed as the wind hit them. Their purpose was done. All that had mattered was distracting Neji.

Speaking of Neji, he was flying through the air as a result of the jutsu. He would have slammed into the wall of the arena if the jutsu had been stronger, but instead he did a flip and kicked off of the wall, allowing him to land uninjured.

'He's stronger than I thought.' Neji thought as he prepared to attack the blond. 'I can't waste any more time on him. He has much more chakra than I do, and he'll wear me down if I'm not careful.'

Naruto looked surprised when Neji dashed towards him with his hand drawn back, prepared to strike him. But he quickly regained his composure and formed a few hand signs.

"Wind Style: Shifting Winds" Naruto whispered under his breath as Neji was within ten feet of him.

Hearing indistinguishable words, Neji went in for a killing strike. He did not want to risk Naruto hitting him with another wind jutsu, especially not when they were that close to each other.

Much to everyone's surprise, except Naruto's of course, Neji's strike went to Naruto's left. Somehow, Neji's hand was diverted a foot to his right.

"What?" Neji said in shock.

'Wind Style: Great Breakthrough' Naruto thought as he quickly flashed through hand signs in the temporary pause that the Hyuga allowed when his strike missed. He was glad that his idea had worked. It would have been bad if his jutsu had not diverted the strike.

Releasing the gust of wind, Naruto saw Neji, who had been a foot away, fly back similarly to how Naruto had flown back when Bushy Brows hit him during their rather short fight before the Chunin Exams.

Not giving Neji time to get away again, Naruto quickly flung six shuriken at Neji and slammed his palms together. "Wind Style: Gale Palm"

Neji quickly did a back flip in the air, touching the feet with his ground. Sliding to a stop, he quickly withdrew his own shuriken and threw them at Naruto's, deflecting them.

"You are good, but will never amount to anything." Neji declared as he entered his taijutsu stance. "Why don't you just give up?"

"Naruto Uzumaki doesn't give up." Naruto said as he withdrew a scroll from his ninja pack and unrolled it. Placing it on the ground, he formed the ram hand sign and slammed his right palm on it.

In an instant, the scroll was covered in kunai.

'What is he doing?' Neji thought.

"This is one move you won't be able to dodge." Naruto said as he created two shadow clones.

Naruto suddenly jumped back as the two shadow clones began to throw the kunai at Neji. Each time the kunai were thrown, Naruto slammed his palms together and used the Wind Style: Gale Palm.

Seeing that he had no choice, Neji quickly released chakra from all of his chakra points and spun around. "Eight Trigrams Palm Rotation" Neji called out as he was surrounded by a field of spinning chakra.

All of the kunai were sent flying as they struck it.

'Pervy Sage didn't tell me that he could do that.' Naruto thought as his clones were dismissed. 'It works out for the best though.'

When Neji stopped spinning, he took a few steps forward and looked at Naruto with a scowl. "Can't you see it? Even if you throw a thousand shuriken at me, you simply cannot beat me. I can do that every time."

"And I can do this every time." Naruto said with a grin.

Neji was caught off guard as all of the kunai on the ground near him exploded into clouds of smoke.

"Na-ru-to" the clones called out as they kicked Neji into the air before he could do anything.

"Uzumaki Barrage" Naruto said as he appeared above Neji in a shimmer of the air and did a spinning heel drop.

Neji felt his stomach surge with pain as the blond's right heel slammed into it, sending him down towards the ground.

'The Body Flicker Technique… he used it to get above me.' Neji thought with a groan as he plummeted towards the ground with more force than he had expected. It seemed that Naruto was actually physically stronger than he had expected.

'Wind Style: Great Breakthrough' Naruto thought as he formed the hand signs to finish off Neji.

Then, everything changed.

Neji was no longer where he had been, and Naruto had not even seen him move.

"Match is at an end. A clear winner has been determined." Genma said, catching Naruto's attention. The blond then saw that Neji was on the ground directly in front of him.

Seeing that the match was at an end, Naruto cut the flow of chakra and did a back flip, landing on the ground about twenty feet away from his clones.

As he landed, the clones dismissed themselves as well.

Naruto could not help but smile at the realization that he had just won his fight against Neji. It made him smile even bigger when he heard the crowd around him cheering.

Walking over the Neji, Naruto offered his right hand.

Taking it, Neji said, "Perhaps fate was on your side after all."

"No. I don't believe in fate. Your belief in it blinded you. Even though I was beating you, you refused to acknowledge that I was a match for you." Naruto said as he helped Neji up. "I understand what you've gone through though. My sensei told me about your father."

Neji stiffened at those words.

"What do you think he'd do if he was here? Do you think he'd be proud of you for the fate bullshit? I think he'd probably pull that stick out of your ass and beat it with you." Naruto said as he walked towards the waiting area. "You'd probably know better than me though. After all, you are his son."

Neji seemed to think more deeply on those words than he had expected. Naruto's question would not ease up on his mind though. What would his father do if he saw who he had become?

"You might want to go to see the medics. You look like you took a pretty good beating." Genma said.

"I'll do that." Neji said as he turned and headed to see the medics.

"The next two contestants are Gaara of the Sand and Sasuke Uchiha of the Leaf. Please come to the center of the arena." Genma said once Neji had headed to the infirmary.

* * *

**Author's Note:** This was actually a very difficult chapter to write. There were four or five objectives to it. I wanted to show Naruto's new attire, introduce a change into the Chunin Exams by having Sasuke there on time, show a few of Naruto's new skills, and still have the changes occur in Neji's personality.

Naruto's new attire is based on Minato's attire when he was younger. On my profile is a picture of Minato after he rescued Kushina from the Cloud ninja. Jiraiya gave Naruto a black version of that with orange stripes down the sleeves instead of blue.

I only showed five of Naruto's new abilities so far also. He used two Kishimoto made wind jutsu and one wind jutsu of my own creation. He also showed the ability to use scroll summonings and the Body Flicker Technique. All of the abilities are rather low level, which is why I gave him so many. He still has three new techniques that have not been shown.

I'm going to go ahead and explain something about Wind Style: Shifting Winds right now, since it may seem odd that it forced Neji to miss his strike. The technique involves using the air surrounding the user as a defense. All weapons thrown at the user while the jutsu is active will miss, almost as if the wind diverted them. The same principle applied to Neji's Gentle Fist strike.

I know some of you are no doubt wondering one thing right now, though. Why was Sasuke on time? Well, he was only late in the manga so that the contestants after him could fight before the invasion begins. That's the reason I think Kishimoto made him late at least.

Anyways. Thanks for reading and reviewing. Next chapter, the invasion begins.

P.S. What do you prefer? Numerical chapter titles or alphabetical chapter titles? For example. Chapter 3 or The Finals Begin: Naruto vs. Neji.


	4. Finals Interrupted: Invasion of the Leaf

**4. The Finals Interrupted: Invasion of the Leaf**

Even as Gaara and Sasuke were going down to the arena to begin their match, everyone was still thinking about Naruto's fight with Neji. It had ended very differently than anyone had expected. After all, no one, not even Naruto's teammates, had expected him to prevail in the end.

They were just beginning to realize that Naruto had changed in more ways than just in his choice of attire.

"How'd you do it, man?" Shikamaru asked when Naruto reached the waiting area. "He didn't even land a hit on you. Even Kiba did better against you."

Naruto simply grinned. He was not about to explain everything that he had gone through in the past month in front of two Sand genin.

Turning his attention to the fight that had just begun, Naruto watched as Sasuke engaged Gaara and a sand clone in taijutsu. He was quickly able to see that his teammate had managed to get speed similar to Lee's and was using the taijutsu that he had copied during the spar with the older dead-last.

Naruto was surprised to see Sasuke actually put up a pretty good fight against Gaara, knocking him around similarly to how Lee did before he opened the gates. He was immediately able to see that it took a great deal out of Sasuke to maintain such speed though. He had copied it, but he had not yet earned the speed. As a result, it put a strain on him.

Things began to get a little more interesting when Gaara covered himself with a sphere of sand, which sent out spikes when Sasuke tried to break through it.

If Naruto was surprised by Sasuke's improved skill, then he was astounded when Sasuke got some distance and used a jutsu similar to the one that Kakashi used to kill Haku.

He remembered hearing about Kakashi's only two original jutsu, the Chidori and the Lightning Blade. If he had to guess, he'd say that it was the Chidori that Sasuke had in his hand.

From his position, Naruto could not see what happened after Sasuke went through the sand sphere with the Chidori. All he was able to see was Sasuke jumping back and the sand sphere falling apart, revealing an injured Gaara.

And then, feathers began to fall from the sky.

"It's a genjutsu." Shino commented as he watched Temari and Kankuro jump onto the floor of the arena and join Gaara.

"What's going on?" Naruto asked as he dispelled the genjutsu.

"I don't know, but take a look at the Kage Box." Shikamaru said as he pointed to where the Hokage and Kazekage were sitting. The entire area was filled with smoke, and a squad of ANBU Black Ops was approaching it.

"The audience has been knocked unconscious by that genjutsu, and the Kazekage's body guards just attacked the Hokage's body guard." Shino said as he turned to look at Naruto. "It looks like another battle is about to start too."

As he said the last part, Naruto saw Gaara's sensei appear in front of Gaara and his siblings.

"It looks like you're right." Naruto said as Gaara and his siblings fled from the arena with Sasuke following them.

"Naruto!" Sakura said as she came running through the entrance a minute or two later with a pug on the ground next to her. "Kakashi-sensei told me to come and get you. We need to go after Sasuke."

"This is going to be troublesome." Shikamaru said when he saw Naruto look at him and Shino.

"I'll come with you." Shino said, sensing what Naruto had been about to say.

"Fine, I'll come too." Shikamaru said with a sigh.

"That's good to hear." Naruto said before looking at Sakura. "Are we just supposed to bring him back, or are we supposed to help him fight Gaara?"

"Kakashi said that fighting Gaara should be left to a jonin." the pug said. "I'm Pakkun by the way. I can track Sasuke."

"He just left. I doubt we'll need to track him." Naruto said as he took off running out of the waiting area. He immediately began to head in the direction that he saw Sasuke run towards earlier.

* * *

Naruto realized that it was a good thing to have Pakkun after all a short time later.

"We're being followed." Pakkun said as they reached the outskirts of the village.

Sasuke and Gaara had a bigger lead on the other genin than Naruto had first thought. Naruto could not catch up to them too quickly because only Pakkun would have been able to completely keep up with him without being exhausted.

"I'll stick back and delay them." Shikamaru volunteered, surprising everyone.

'Well, he doesn't have to keep running if he stays back. I guess I can understand that.' Naruto thought with a grim smile. Forming a hand sign, he created ten shadow clones. "My shadow clones will help you. Good luck."

Nodding Shikamaru took cover and began to plan out how to best utilize the shadow clones that Naruto had let him use.

"Why did you let him stay back? He might die trying to stall them." Sakura asked a few minutes later, concerned about her former classmate.

"You're right; he could. We could be marching to our deaths as well. I saw what Gaara did to Bush Brows." Naruto said grimly. "But I have confidence in Shikamaru. He's too lazy to die, and he hasn't fought today. He has all his chakra, all his intelligence, and ten of my clones. I wouldn't be surprised if he kicked their asses and then went cloud watching."

"Naruto has a point there." Shino said. It sounded completely in character for Shikamaru. He had already shown that he could win fights with strategy.

"There's someone up ahead. They're hiding behind a tree. It looks like they're going to try to ambush you." Pakkun said.

"It's Kankuro, the puppet user." Shino said. "I planted a bug on him back in the arena so I'd have an ace in the hole for our fight."

"Perhaps you'll get your fight after all." Naruto commented.

"I will." Shino agreed. "I can handle him. I want you three to go on ahead without me."

Naruto nodded, seeing that it was the best option.

Naruto formed half of the ram sign with his right hand and placed his left hand on Sakura's shoulder. Pakkun jumped on his right shoulder as he did it.

Then, the two ninja and the ninja dog vanished in a shimmer of the air.

They reappeared about one mile ahead of where they had originally been. As they appeared, Naruto let go of Sakura and Pakkun jumped off of his shoulder.

"Why do we keep abandoning our comrades?" Sakura asked. "Aren't we supposed to work as a team?"

"Shikamaru and Shino can handle their situations. I am confident of that." Naruto said with a sigh. He did not like having to leave them behind either, but Kakashi entrusted them with bringing back Sasuke, so that was what he was determined to do.

"There are three shinobi up ahead. One of them is off to the side while the other two are fighting. If I had to guess, I'd say that one of them is unconscious." Pakkun said.

Naruto simply nodded as he pushed forward even faster.

* * *

They reached Sasuke and Gaara a short time later. Sasuke was covered in black marks from his cursed mark, though Naruto had no idea what they were from. Gaara, on the other hand, was half covered in sand that looked like a demon.

"Sasuke, we have to get you back!" Sakura said as they reached him.

"Okay." Sasuke said as he backed away from Gaara. He was feeling drained and did not think that he would be able to fight much longer anyways. "We have to hurry if we want to get away though."

"No! No running! Mother wants your blood!" Gaara said in a maniacal voice.

All of the sudden, a claw of sand slammed into Sakura, pinning her to the tree that she had been standing on the branch of.

"Shit!" Naruto said as he jumped over to Sakura and tried to free her. Despite everything, he could not do it though. Then, he had an idea. "Sasuke, could you free her with a Chidori?"

"Yeah, I could. I don't have the chakra to use one though." Sasuke said, trying to figure out what to do.

"Chakra Transfer Jutsu" Naruto said as he quickly formed the ram hand sign. In an instant, Sasuke felt his chakra replenish at a much faster rate than he had ever expected.

"How… how did you do that?" Sasuke asked in amazement.

"Pervy Sage said a jutsu like that could be pretty useful for someone like me." Naruto said as he looked towards Gaara. "Get Sakura free and head back to the village. I'll hold him off."

"No, you can't do it. He's too strong." Sasuke said as he shook his head.

"Just do it." Naruto said in a tone that reminded Sasuke of Iruka. "You're the only person who can free her, and I'm the only person who can hold him off."

As much as he did not like what Naruto said, Sasuke jumped to a different tree branch and formed the Chidori. With a single chakra enhanced leap, he severed the sand claw and grabbed Sakura. He then took off with her, running towards the village.

"No! You cannot escape!" Gaara shouted as sand shot towards them.

Instead of hitting them, Gaara was punched in the face as Naruto appeared directly in front of him.

"Your fight is with me." Naruto said with a fiery determination in his eyes that made Gaara grin.

"Mother wants your blood instead." Gaara said as he sent his said to cover the blond.

* * *

**Author's Note:** This chapter was as much fun as shaving with a cheese grater. It started to get fun to write at the very end, but I did not want Naruto to fight Gaara in this chapter.

Unlike Kishimoto, my major focus when writing is Naruto. When writing chapters similar to canon, I won't be showing you what is going on with other characters. Don't expect me to switch to the Third Hokage for his fight with Orochimaru or switch to the different members of the Sasuke Retrieval team during that arc for their fights. The main characters are Naruto and Tayuya. They are the only ones I intend on focusing on.

Also, try to keep in mind that this story will diverge more fully from canon starting with the Sasuke Retrieval Arc. I won't say more yet. I'd hate to ruin the surprise. One observation that I will make, however, is that Shikamaru did not fight Temari in the Chunin Exams. Guess who won't be becoming a chunin.

As I showed you this chapter, Naruto's new jutsu consists of Wind Style: Great Breakthrough, Wind Style: Gale Palm, Wind Style: Shifting Winds, the Body Flicker Technique, the Chakra Transfer Jutsu, and some basic fuinjutsu. He has one or two additional techniques that have yet to make an appearance. Expect Naruto to go all out next chapter though.

Thanks for reading; please review.


	5. Two Sides of the Coin: Naruto vs Gaara

**5. Two Sides of the Coin: Naruto vs. Gaara**

The sand never touched him.

Naruto appeared next to Pakkun before the sand that Gaara sent after him even came close.

"Naruto, what are you going to do?" Pakkun asked curiously. "You know that he's too strong to defeat. You might have been trained by the Toad Sage, but you can't summon and you lack powerful ninjutsu like the Chidori."

"The greatest shinobi can take the simplest, most basic jutsu and turn it into a killer technique." Naruto said with smile. "That's what Pervy Sage told me."

"That doesn't exactly explain what you're going to do." Pakkun deadpanned.

"I'm going to kick his ass or die trying." Naruto said as he formed the ram hand sign. "But first, I'll use a jutsu to boost my chances. Transparency Jutsu"

Right before Pakkun's eyes, Naruto turned almost completely invisibly. Only the eyes of a dog allowed him to see a slight distortion in the air where he was.

'It looks like he learned quite a bit from the Toad Sage after all.' Pakkun thought.

"I know you're there!" Gaara cackled madly as he sent sand shuriken at Pakkun and the invisible Naruto.

Before the shuriken hit, the pug disappeared though.

Naruto instantly reappeared, still invisible, on the ground with Pakkun.

"Gaara has gone off the deep end." Naruto said. "I think I know why too. Let's face it. He's the opposite side of the coin as me. I know that the one-tailed was sealed inside him."

Pakkun nodded in agreement. He could not help but be curious as to how Naruto knew though.

"Pervy Sage wouldn't tell me how to beat any of my opponents. He wanted me to figure it out on my own. So, I went to the library yesterday. I found out that the only way to use sand like that is to be the host of the one-tailed beast. It had a warning in the book about fighting such an opponent. It claimed that all hosts of the one-tailed beast were not mentally stable. Even one that was treated really well could snap at times. And I remember him saying that he fought for his existence back during the preliminaries." Naruto said, talking more to himself than anything. "If I had to guess, I'd say that he was treated badly… maybe completely ignored like I was by most people. He might not have had someone to protect him from people who loathed his existence though. The Old Man always protected me. I doubt anyone would have done more than thought badly of me out of fear of him."

"I think you're right." Pakkun said.

"Maybe that's why I can't find it in me to hate him. I see who I could have become in him." Naruto said as he took a deep breath. "But the time for talking is over. I'm ready to take him down."

"But how? You might be strong, but you aren't strong enough to take on an insane jinchuriki host." Pakkun objected.

"I've got an ace in the hole." Naruto said before leaves flew through the air where his voice had been coming from.

Naruto reappeared on a tree branch above Gaara, careful not to make a sound.

'Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu' he thought as one hundred shadow clones came into existence in a circle surrounding Gaara.

"I'll kill you all!" Gaara laughed maniacally as he began to attack the clones with his sand.

'Wind Style: Great Breakthrough' Naruto thought as he shot a gust of wind down on top of the one-tailed jinchuriki.

The blast dropped Gaara to the ground and snapped the tree branch that he had been standing on.

As Gaara slammed into the ground, he looked even happier, which made Naruto nervous.

"I'll show you my full power!" Gaara exclaimed as his sand retracted towards him and began to cover him, creating a very large monster.

When the sand finished forming, Gaara was sticking out waist up from the head of the one-tailed beast. Naruto only recognized it because the book about it had a few pictures in it.

'I didn't know he could do that.' Naruto thought as he looked at the recreation of the tailed beast.

* * *

"Thanks Asuma-sensei." Shikamaru said with a deep breath as his sensei dropped the last of the Sound ninja that had attacked him.

"It's not a problem. You handled most of them pretty well." Asuma said as he looked at the corpses that had been surrounding Shikamaru when he had arrived.

"Naruto left ten of his clones with me. I just captured the ninja while the clones finished them off. Unfortunately, I missed one of them, and he freed the others." Shikamaru said with a sigh. "I would've handled them easily otherwise."

"Where's Naruto?" Asuma asked curiously. If Naruto had left clones with Shikamaru, then they would have had a reason to be headed that way.

"He's fighting Gaara." Sasuke said as he landed a little ways away with an unconscious Sakura slung over his shoulder. "He told me to get Sakura out of there though. Gaara actually trapped her with his sand as soon as he saw her."

Asuma looked worried at that news. A single genin fighting against the Sand's jinchuriki was never good, especially when the Leaf genin was the jinchuriki of the nine-tails.

"Did Kakashi send them after you?" Asuma asked.

"Yeah, that's what Sakura said." Shikamaru answered for Sasuke. He doubted that the Uchiha had known about that after all. "Sensei, what should we do about Naruto?"

"Go to the evacuation chambers in Hokage Monument." Asuma said immediately. "I'll go after Naruto and do what I can."

"Please save him. He only stayed behind to let us get away." Sasuke said. He was not begging though. A member of the Uchiha clan could not beg for anything. It was a ninja rule… or something like that.

"He'll be fine. I am a jonin after all." Asuma said as he quickly began to run in the direction that Sasuke had come from.

Moving as fast as only a jonin level shinobi could, Asuma quickly came across Shino. Leaning over Shino was his father, Shibi Aburame.

"Will he be okay?" Asuma asked as he stopped. He had the feeling that he would since Shibi was still there with him.

"Yes, I am taking care of the poison that he had been infected with. You might want to go ahead though." Shibi said. "My colony is reacting strangely. It appears that a large quantity of foul chakra is being used up ahead. It reminds me of the attack thirteen years ago."

Hearing that made Asuma even more worried, so he took off running in the hopes of finding Naruto.

Asuma reached the scene of the fight a short time later, and Pakkun was there.

"Oh shit…." Asuma muttered under his breath as he saw the one-tailed beast with Naruto in its claw.

* * *

Naruto's day had gone from bad to worse the instant that he tried to attack Naruto atop the head of the one-tailed replica. He had appeared directly behind Gaara, but touching the sand had caused it to cover him. He had not been covered with sand like Lee's arm and leg had been in the preliminaries though. It had covered him very finely, making it possible to see him, despite the Transparency Jutsu. He had then been thrown through a tree and picked up by Shukaku's claw.

"You will die now!" Gaara said as he tried to crush Naruto.

"Ninja Art: Needle Jizo" Naruto said as he quickly formed the last hand sign. In an instant, his hair lengthened and covered him completely before spiking out. His hair was charged with chakra, allowing it to be just as strong as Gaara's sand.

'It's a good thing I asked Jiraiya for a defensive jutsu.' Naruto thought.

"_Pervy Sage, I have these techniques that let me attack, make my ninja tools more effective, alter the direction of my enemies' ninja tools, help my allies when they're low on chakra, move fast, and turn invisible, but I don't have one that protects me. What if I can't dodge attack? What am I supposed to do then?" Naruto asked Jiraiya a couple days before the finals._

"_Well, there is one jutsu that would help you." Jiraiya said thoughtfully. "Okay, I'll teach you one defensive jutsu. It's of my own creation. It is called, Ninja Art: Needle Jizo. Your hair's a bit short for it to work quickly, but it should still work. Here are the hand signs…."_

"Why won't you die?" Gaara asked furiously as he threw Naruto towards the ground.

Quickly canceling the jutsu, Naruto felt his hair shorten back to its original length. He then formed the ram hand sign and used the body flicker technique to reappear next to Pakkun.

Coughing blood as he reappeared, Naruto immediately fell against a tree.

"Naruto, are you okay?" Asuma asked as he quickly leaned down and checked on him.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I need you to back up a little bit though, Asuma-sensei. I'm going to take him down now." Naruto said as he closed his eyes.

"I'll let you have it your way." Asuma said as he stepped back. He did not like the situation at all, but he figured that it would be a good idea to let Naruto stall while he came up with a plan.

"I will protect everyone." Naruto said with fierce determination as he opened his eyes. His normally blue eyes were crimson. 'This power… thinking back on the Battle of the Bridge helped me bring it out… let's see how two hosts fight."

In an instant, Naruto disappeared from sight without the use of jutsu.

Gaara's eyes widened as Naruto reappeared directly in front of him and threw a barrage of punches and kicks. Thirteen punches and seven kicks landed before Gaara's sand even reacted to his presence.

Before the sand could reach the blond, he reappeared behind Gaara and began his relentless taijutsu assault again.

Asuma's eyes widened considerably at the sight of Naruto moving so fast. It was comparable to Lee with the first gate open at the very least.

'And he's not even using a chakra shroud.' Asuma, familiar with jinchuriki forms, thought.

As Gaara tried to counter Naruto once again, the blond reappeared directly above him. With a single spinning heel drop, he kicked Gaara on the top of the head.

Naruto's hands flashed through hand signs and he released a Wind Style: Great Breakthrough from point blank range at Gaara, shattering the Shukaku replica and sending him plummeting to the ground.

Without anything to stand on, Naruto fell to the ground as well, though he did a flip and landed on his feet while Gaara landed on his back.

'What could it be… that makes him so strong…?' Gaara thought. 'I will not disappear. I will not cease to exist. I won't!'

Naruto slowly began to walk towards Gaara, feeling pain throughout his body.

"No, stay away!" Gaara said as he flinched back from the approaching Naruto.

"It's almost unbearable; isn't it? The feeling of being alone…." Naruto said softly as he continued to approach Gaara. "I know that feeling. I've been there… in that dark and lonely place. But now… there are others… other people who mean a lot to me. I care more about them than I do myself, and I won't let anyone hurt them. That's why I'll never give up."

"Why would you do that for anyone but yourself?" Gaara asked, completely confused at the blond's reasoning.

"Because they saved me from myself. They rescued me from my loneliness. They were the first to accept me for who I am. They are my friends." Naruto answered as he fell to his knees. He had used up most of his chakra.

'Love… is that what makes him so strong?' Gaara wondered.

"Naruto, that's enough. Just relax." Asuma said as he appeared next to him. "He's used up all his chakra. He can't do any more damage now."

All of the sudden, Temari and Kankuro appeared in front of Gaara, looking ready to fight.

"No… that's enough." Gaara said.

Kankuro and Temari did not know what to do, so they just grabbed Gaara and left as fast as they could.

Asuma, not wanting to leave Naruto, just let them leave.

"Kankuro… Temari… I'm sorry." Gaara told his siblings as they made their escape, surprising them greatly.

"Don't worry about it." Kankuro said.

Watching them leave, Asuma picked Naruto up and headed back to the Hidden Leaf Village with him. All the while, he thought, 'You must enjoy shocking us. First, you beat Kiba. Then, you beat next. And finally, you show the Will of Fire and beat another jinchuriki. You'll do amazing things.'

* * *

**Author's Note:** Thanks for reading. This chapter did not turn out how it was intended. That's only because I forgot how Naruto was originally going to beat Gaara. I should have written it down, but I went to sleep since I planned it. Oh well.

Originally, I had no intention for Naruto to learn Needle Jizo, or at least not so early. It was the easiest jutsu to give him for the fight to work without him later exploiting the jutsu to win fights with ease.

Also, please note that Naruto's dialogue with Gaara at the end of the chapter is not of my creation. I watched the end of the fight in the anime as I wrote the chapter.

Now, I hope everyone's looking forward to the next chapter. We are at the end of the Chunin Exams/ Sound and Sand Invasion Arc, meaning that the Search for Tsunade Arc will begin next.

Anyways, thanks again for reading. Please review.


	6. A New Mission: The Search Begins

**6. A New Mission: The Search Begins**

"We would like you to be Hokage."

Jiraiya snorted at that statement by Koharu Utatane, the former advisor and teammate of his sensei, the Third Hokage. "I would like the wall removed that divides the hot springs for men and women. I don't see that happening."

"Be realistic, Jiraiya." Homura Mitokado, the other advisor and member of Team Tobirama, said. "It is only natural for one of the Sannin to take the place of Hokage after the Third's death. Who else is there? Danzo? Kakashi? No one else has the necessary power to hold the position of Hokage."

Jiraiya did not even respond to the suggestions of Danzo and Kakashi. Danzo Shimura as Hokage was a joke, though it was not a funny one at that. Kakashi Hatake, on the other hand, would have made a fine Hokage in Jiraiya's opinion. But, even Jiraiya could see that Kakashi was not ready for such a role at that point in time.

"If you want one of the Sannin, then you're in luck. There just happens to be one other that isn't in your Bingo Book." Jiraiya said with a grin. He was always happy when he found a way out of a tight position. Being unable to travel, gather information on Akatsuki, research, and write his novels compounded together as a tight position.

"You are referring to Lady Tsunade." Koharu said thoughtfully as she looked at Homura.

"She would satisfy the needs of the position, if she were to accept such a position. That would prove to be even more difficult a task than finding her. Given how difficult it was for the Third to find you, I doubt that finding her would be an easy task, however." Homura replied.

"ANBU Black Ops would never find her. I, on the other hand, could find her fairly quick." Jiraiya said, catching their interest. They did not doubt him though. Few would ever doubt the claims of a shinobi of his caliber.

"If you find her and convince her, then we will not ask you to become Hokage again." Koharu said.

"That's good. I do have one request though." Jiraiya said. "There's someone I want to take with me."

* * *

The next day...

"Naruto Uzumaki, you have been summoned to the Hokage's office." an ANBU said as he appeared in Naruto's apartment.

Naruto blinked and looked down at his cereal. The last thing that he had expected was to receive orders so early in the morning.

"Who is summoning me?" Naruto asked. "The Old Man's funeral was a week ago."

"These orders came from Jonin Commander Shikaku Nara." the ANBU answered. "He sounded urgent about it too."

Getting the hint, Naruto set his spoon down and rose to his feet. Walking over to the door, he slipped on his shoes and removed his black and orange jacket from the coat rack. Putting the jacket on, he said, "Are you taking me there, or do I get to walk?" A hint of sarcasm was laced in his words. He simply found it annoying that the ANBU was still there.

"My apologies." the ANBU said before he disappeared.

Sighing, Naruto left his apartment and headed to the Administration Building.

There were so many things that he would have preferred doing than going to meet the Jonin Commander. For the past week, he had been honing his skills while he sent shadow clones to help Sakura and Sasuke rebuild along with the rest of the uninjured genin of the village.

The sudden shortage of ninja that came as a result of the invasion was wearing on the village greatly. All of the Chunin, Special Jonin, and Jonin of the village were occupied with missions. As a result, the only ninja in the village at a regular basis above genin were the Jonin Commander and ANBU Black Ops.

Naruto still could not believe that so many people had died in the invasion, especially the Third Hokage.

He was broken from his thoughts as he reached the Hokage's Office and knocked. Hearing permission, he entered and saw Shikamaru's father sitting behind the Hokage's desk.

"It's good to see you, Naruto Uzumaki." Shikaku said. "Shut the door and take a seat."

Nodding, Naruto did just as Shikaku requested.

"I asked you to come here to talk about everything that happened a week ago." Shikaku said. He saw Naruto stiffen at those words. "First of all, your match was the only one to be concluded in the finals of the Chunin Exams. As a result, only two shinobi were considered for the promotion to Chunin. You were actually nominated for the promotion by every judge, whereas Neji Hyuga was nominated by a mere fourth of the judges. There's been much debate as to whether anyone should even be promoted as a result of the exams. That doesn't really matter though."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, confused about Shikaku's last words.

"During the invasion, you took charge of three genin and fulfilled a mission given to you by your sensei, Kakashi Hatake. You made appropriate decisions, sent aid to one of your comrades that went to fight off following shinobi, bypassed an ambush in order to get to your goal, and sacrificed yourself to allow your comrades to get away and complete the mission. If you aren't chunin material, then I don't know who is." Shikaku said, surprising Naruto. "I am hereby promoting you to the rank of chunin on the basis of both the Chunin Exams and wartime actions. Congratulations on your promotion."

Naruto was stunned speechless at that point. He had not even considered the possibility of becoming a chunin after the invasion occurred. And he really had not considered the possibility of being promoted partially for wartime actions. He knew that it was definitely a wartime scenario though.

"Thank you, Jonin Commander." Naruto said politely.

"No, I'd like to thank you. It was my son that you sent aid to during the mission. If not for you, then he might have died before Asuma reached him." Shikaku said. "And your actions during the invasion against Gaara of the Sand saved more people than you can realize. If he had been allowed to unleash his powers within the village, it would have been disastrous."

"I was only doing what I had to." Naruto said, not used to receiving such praise.

'And that's what makes you a chunin of the Hidden Leaf Village. You didn't have to protect the village at all. You could have gone to Hokage Monument and taken shelter like the other genin. Instead, you completed an A-rank mission and fought a skilled jinchuriki with little assistance.' Shikaku thought.

Clearing his through, Shikaku said, "I have your first mission as a chunin too. You are to join Master Jiraiya on a mission to find Tsunade of the Sannin. Then, you get to try to convince her to return to be our Fifth Hokage."

Naruto looked surprised to hear that he was involved in such a mission. Then, he looked sad for a split second. He did not like the thought of the Third Hokage being replaced already.

"I know what you're thinking. It's only been a week since Lord Third Hokage fell in combat. Unfortunately, we must act quickly. Without a Hokage, we are perceived as weak and vulnerable. With a new Hokage, we will be able to rebuild our forces without being too worried about being attacked again." Shikaku said with a sigh. "It's troublesome, but a new Hokage must be chosen. If not Lady Tsunade, then the position will fall unto Master Jiraiya or Kakashi Hatake."

"We'll find her then." Naruto promised. He could not imagine how bad it would be with either one as Hokage. It would be really bad for him since he could not get much training from them if one of them became the leader of the village.

"That's good to hear." Shikaku said. "Once you are ready to go, meet Master Jiraiya at the village gates. From there, he'll take the lead."

Naruto nodded in understanding and turned to leave.

"And Naruto, Tsunade is a brilliant medic. If she were to be brought here, then she might be able to heal your friend Rock Lee." Shikaku said.

Like intended, Naruto was filled with determination at the thought of getting Lee in fighting shape again. The two had become good friends in the past week, and the thought of Lee being able to continue his life's ambition was very motivating.

* * *

"Congratulations on your promotion." Jiraiya said as he and Naruto were walking down the road a few miles away from the Hidden Leaf Village.

"Oh, you heard about that?" Naruto asked with a grin.

"Yeah, Shikaku told me last night. What reasons did they list?" Jiraiya asked. "They'll be included in your file, so quite a few people will know all about how you became a chunin."

"I was promoted because of my fight with Neji and because of wartime actions." Naruto answered with a smile.

"There hasn't been a Leaf ninja to be promoted for wartime actions since the last Great War. Congratulations truly are in order." Jiraiya said. "And I know just how to congratulate you. I have a killer technique that I want to teach you."

That piqued Naruto's interest.

"It is one of the hardest jutsu to learn. It took me three months to learn it, and it took my last student three years to create it. It's called the Rasengan." Jiraiya said. "If you learn it, you will be the fourth person to ever learn it."

"Who created it? And who knows it?" Naruto asked excited. Even though he could act mature at times, he could not help himself when Jiraiya was talking about a powerful jutsu.

"My last student was the Fourth Hokage. He created it." Jiraiya said with a grin. He watched Naruto's eyes widen with excitement. "And he only taught it to two other people: his sensei and his prized student. His prized student was Kakashi Hatake, your sensei."

"So, he could have taught it to me if he had trained me last month?" Naruto asked.

"Sure, he could have. But, that wouldn't have made you a chunin." Jiraiya said. "In addition to that, Kakashi had to keep Sasuke out of the village all last month. A traitor by the name of Kabuto Yakushi attempted to kidnap Sasuke while he was in the hospital. He was working with Orochimaru, so the Third Hokage ordered Kakashi to remove Sasuke from the village for the rest of the month. It was only natural that he would train the boy also."

Naruto's eyes widened in shock, and he looked away. He felt shocked that Kakashi had only refused to train him because of a more important task, but he felt stunned that Kabuto, who had helped Team Seven in the Forest of Death, had been working for Orochimaru.

"Pervy Sage, I met Kabuto in the Forest of Death." Naruto said as he began to tell Jiraiya about what had happened.

"I can't claim to know why he was pretending to be your ally. I would guess that he was trying to learn how skilled you and Sasuke were though." Jiraiya said with a grim expression. "Don't worry about him though. He will be taken care of in the end."

Naruto nodded in understanding. "So is there anything I should know about your teammate?"

Reaching into his haori, Jiraiya removed a picture from Tsunade and handed it over to Naruto. "She likes to gamble and drink, and she has terrible luck. If you want to find her, you have to look at casinos or bars." Jiraiya answered. "Finding her isn't that difficult. Getting her to agree to become Hokage is. You see, she isn't very fond of the village. It reminds her of the past, and that's something she's running away from."

Naruto nodded, showing that he was listening. Looking at the picture, he asked, "Shouldn't she be like fifty years old though? She looks twenty or thirty in this picture."

"She uses an advanced form of the transformation jutsu. It only goes down when her chakra is completely depleted." Jiraiya explained. "Oh, and she's afraid of blood."

"She's a medic, and she's afraid of blood?" Naruto asked skeptically.

"I suppose that Shikaku would tell you that she was a medic. She was a medic at one time. I doubt that she's healed anyone for several years though. She travels around with an apprentice named Shizune. She's a jonin level shinobi with an emphasis on medical ninjutsu and poison based ninjutsu." Jiraiya answered. "And before you ask, the fear of blood is related to her past. I'll leave it at that."

Naruto nodded and decided not to ask anything else about it.

"We'll begin your training when we reach the next town. There are some things we need in order for me to teach you how to use it." Jiraiya said.

The young chunin's attention switched over from the mission at hand to the jutsu Jiraiya was going to teach him in an instant.

'He's easy to predict at times and impossible to predict at others. At least, he'll get stronger every time I have to distract him.' Jiraiya thought.

* * *

**Author's Note:** And so begins my short rendition of the Search for Tsunade Arc. I said that it will be a short rendition because I am using a time skip to cover the first three weeks of their search. No one wants to read about the search, and the only interesting things that happened in that time was the Itachi and Kisame part. I'm sure everyone knows how the first two steps of the Rasengan training worked also, so that would not be all that interesting to read about again.

I'm getting more and more eager to get to the Sasuke Retrieval Arc. I've never written it before, but it's my favorite arc in Part 1.

But anyways, thanks for reading, and please review.


	7. The Bet of a Lifetime

**7. The Bet of a Lifetime**

Three weeks had passed since Naruto and Jiraiya set out on their mission to find Tsunade and convince her to come back to the Hidden Leaf Village to be the Fifth Hokage.

Though the three weeks had been mostly unsuccessful, much had happened.

A few days into the search, Naruto had been cornered at their hotel by two S-ranked shinobi, Itachi Uchiha of the Leaf and Kisame Hoshigaki of the Mist. They had tried to capture him, though the arrival of Sasuke Uchiha, who attempted to use the Chidori on Itachi, had delayed them long enough for Jiraiya to arrive and scare them off.

Following Itachi and Kisame's defeat, Might Guy had shown up and told them about the two S-ranked shinobi coming to the Hidden Leaf Village and fighting Kakashi, Asuma, and Kurenai. After informing them that Kakashi was hospitalized for the same genjutsu technique that Itachi used on Sasuke, Guy had taken the Uchiha back to the village.

Immediately after Guy left, Jiraiya had started Naruto on the training for the Rasengan. It had taken him a week to get through the first exercise: popping a water balloon using his chakra. Then, it had taken him another week to get through the second exercise: popping a rubber ball. The third exercise, combining the first two exercises and forming the actual jutsu, was still a work in progress. He just knew that he was getting close to completing the exercise though, despite his difficulties.

The end of the search appeared to have come that day though, making Naruto think that he would not be able to complete the Rasengan during the mission.

'There she is.' Naruto thought as he entered the bar where he was originally going to eat dinner with Jiraiya. 'Knowing him, he probably thought she'd be here too. They do serve alcohol here after all.'

"I see her too." Jiraiya said under his breath. "I'll introduce us. It's a good thing you didn't get a flak jacket. If she saw one of us wearing one, she'd probably flee."

Nodding, Naruto followed Jiraiya to the table where Tsunade and her black haired apprentice named Shizune were sitting.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" Jiraiya asked, gesturing to the seat across from Tsunade.

"Go ahead. You know you're going to do it anyways." Tsunade said with a snort. "So who's the brat? Don't tell me you've taken on another runt."

As she said that, Jiraiya sat across from her and Naruto sat across from Shizune.

"This is Naruto Uzumaki, a chunin of the Hidden Leaf Village and my apprentice." Jiraiya answered as he nodded towards Naruto.

"Nice to meet you." Naruto said with a nod of his head, keeping both girls in his line of sight. He wanted to be prepared for anything.

"They must've lowered their standards for him to become a chunin." Tsunade said with a small laugh.

"Actually, he was promoted partially the Chunin Exams and partially for wartime actions." Jiraiya said, seeing that his apprentice had just tightened his hands into fists. "He's the strongest ninja of his generation."

"Whatever you say." Tsunade said, rolling her eyes. "Now, why are you here? You never come around unless you want something after all."

"You've heard about the Third Hokage?" Jiraiya asked looking at Tsunade carefully.

"Yeah, I've heard." Tsunade answered as if it did not matter. In her mind, that was the entire purpose of the Hokage though. They died.

"They want you to be the Fifth Hokage." Jiraiya said, surprising both Tsunade and Shizune.

"Didn't the last one just die? I'd have to be stupid to even want to take the position. After all, only fools want to be Hokage" Tsunade said with a snort. "I might have bad luck with gambling, but even I'm not foolish enough to take that job. Money's one thing, but a life's another. Every Hokage gets killed defending the village. It's a true sucker's bet."

Jiraiya had several things planned to say at that moment, but Naruto spoke before he could.

"Shut up, you old bitch." Naruto said as he leveled a glare at the Slug Princess. "You can sit here and rot for all I care, but I won't let you talk bad about the Old Man. He was a hero. The Hokage is always a hero. That's why you could never be one. I don't see why we went searching for a hopeless has been like you anyways."

Jiraiya was shocked speechless at Naruto's words. He had expected a bad reaction to Tsunade's words, but he had never heard Naruto say anything quite like that.

"Shut your trap you little brat!" Tsunade growled. "Don't make me teach you manners."

"Like you could, you old hag." Naruto said challengingly.

"Alright. Me and you… right now. Let's take this outside." Tsunade said angrily.

"Why would I want to do that? Do you need help finding your cane? I know you elders can't get around easily without them." Naruto said, causing Tsunade to pick him up by the shirt.

"You. Are. Going. To. Die." Tsunade promised as she hauled him outside of the restaurant and through him into the street.

"This is ridiculous. Imagine me fighting a little chunin." Tsunade muttered as she walked over to Naruto, who was just standing up. "I'll make this easy on you. I'll only use one finger to beat you."

"Good luck with that." Naruto said as he quickly dashed forwards and threw a barrage of punches and kicks. All of the attacks were easily blocked with Tsunade's finger.

'Wind Style: Great Breakthrough' Naruto thought as he suddenly launched a gust of wind at Tsunade from point blank range. She merely held her ground though.

Flicking Naruto on the forehead, Tsunade sent him flying back farther than he had thought possible a moment later.

Instead of hitting the ground, Naruto landed on the ground feet first and formed a spiraling blue sphere of chakra in his right hand. Charging towards Tsunade, he called out, "Rasengan"

Recognizing the jutsu, Tsunade struck the ground with her right index finger, creating a large hole that Naruto stepped in and fell to the ground. As he hit, his jutsu dissipated.

"Jiraiya, what are you thinking? Why would you get the boy's hopes up by making him think that he could pull off a jutsu like that? You know that the only ones skilled enough to learn that jutsu were you and that Hatake kid." Tsunade said as she turned and looked at Jiraiya, who had been watching from the doorway. "The thought of him mastering the Rasengan is about as ridiculous as me being the Hokage."

Tsunade suddenly staggered back as something hit her in the stomach. Looking before her, she saw Naruto right in front of her with his fist still touching her stomach.

"I can do it, you old hag, but I don't care if you talk bad about me. I won't let you say anything bad about the position of Hokage though." Naruto said in a calm but passionate voice.

Tsunade snorted before flicking Naruto in the forehead again, but he was replaced with a log.

"Why do you try so hard kid? Why do you even give a rat's ass about the position of Hokage?" Tsunade asked. She did not really care about the kid, but he seemed far more determined than she felt comfortable with.

"Because unlike you, that is my goal. I will be Hokage one day. Remember this! To be Hokage, that is my dream." Naruto said. If he had paid close attention, he would have noticed Tsunade's eyes widen in shock. Jiraiya and Shizune were the only ones that ended up seeing it though. "And I'll have the Rasengan mastered in just three days. You wait and see. I'll prove that I can do it."

Hearing the last part, allowed Tsunade to think about something else.

"Watch what you say kid. I just might hold you to it." Tsunade said.

"I said it, and I mean it. I never go back on my word. That's my ninja way." Naruto declared.

"Well then, care to make a bet on it?" Tsunade asked with a grin.

"A bet?" Naruto asked.

"I'll give you one week. If you can master that jutsu, I'll admit that I was wrong and that you are worthy of becoming Hokage. I'll even throw in my necklace." Tsunade said as she pointed to the green crystal necklace that she wore.

"Lady, you've got a bet." Naruto said, instantly recognizing the necklace as the one that the First Hokage was wearing in several of the pictures he had seen of him.

"That's good to hear. But, if you don't master it in the week… you lose, admit I was right, and give me all your money." Tsunade said. She inwardly smiled when she saw that Naruto's determination did not falter.

"Lady Tsunade, you can't be serious!" Shizune said. "The necklace-"

"He hasn't a chance of winning. Come on, Shizune. Let's go." Tsunade said as she began to walk in the opposite direction.

"You should have tried to get her to agree to be Hokage if she lost." Jiraiya remarked as he walked up to Naruto. "Nonetheless, you did good work."

"She wouldn't have agreed to such a bet." Naruto said with a shrug. "So, can we go get something to eat now? I have to start on my training soon."

Jiraiya simply chuckled and said, "Sure, let's go." He had the feeling that he would not see Naruto again until he mastered the Rasengan. After all, Naruto would train nonstop so long as he was determined.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Well, it's shorter than I expected. It was all I had originally planned on focusing on though. I will conclude this arc next chapter. So, the story is getting to (one of) the good part(s).

Thanks for reading and reviewing.

Out of curiosity, what would you, the readers, prefer? Would you like to see Naruto's training with Jiraiya over the two and a half year period between the Sasuke Retrieval Arc and Naruto's return to the village? Or, would you prefer a time-skip?


	8. Reunion of the Sannin

**8. Reunion of the Sannin**

"Hey, where am I?" Naruto asked as he sat up in a bed that he did not recognize. Looking around, he saw Shizune passed out on the floor. Quickly moving to her side, he shook her awake and repeated the question.

"Naruto! What day is it? What time is it?" Shizune asked frantically as she realized what was going on.

"It's Monday morning… you know, the day that I win the bet." Naruto answered. "But again, where am I? And what am I doing here?"

"I found you unconscious last night. You used up all your chakra training. I don't even know how you can be standing here. You should still be asleep." Shizune said, feeling confused as to how Naruto was doing just fine.

"I'm a jinchuriki. I'll be fine." Naruto said, surprising Shizune even more. She had completely forgotten about it. "Where's your teacher anyways? I need to win this bet."

"You've mastered the jutsu?" Shizune asked in surprise.

"I've mastered it twice." Naruto said, grinning when she did not understand him. He doubted anyone would understand what he meant. He could use the complete Rasengan with the aid of a shadow clone four days earlier. The hard part had been making it possible to use without a shadow clone.

"Naruto, I need you to stay here." Shizune said a moment later, realizing that she had to go after Tsunade and try to stop her before it was too late. Running towards the window, she opened it and stuck her head out of it. She was barely able to pull back before a kunai slammed into the window sill.

"What in the world?" Shizune thought aloud.

"What is it?" Naruto asked as he looked out the window. "Pervy Sage?"

"She slipped something into my drink…." Jiraiya said as he leaned against the building on the balcony outside of the window. "I can't build up my chakra or throw a kunai straight."

'He almost threw it straight enough to kill me.' Shizune thought sourly.

"Why would she do that?" Naruto asked in confusion.

"She's going to make a deal with Orochimaru, isn't she?" Jiraiya asked as he looked at Shizune carefully.

"I never thought she'd go through with it… that's why I never told you about it. You two must come with me. We have to stop her. I'll explain on the way." Shizune said.

"I'm not for sure if I can." Jiraiya said with a groan. "I'm having trouble walking straight."

"I have a generic antidote, but it won't completely cancel out whatever drug she gave you. If I knew which one it was, I could cancel it now, but we don't have the time to figure it out." Shizune said as she removed a small bottle and handed it Jiraiya, who drank it immediately.

Jiraiya took a deep breath and stood up without the support of the wall. "I'll just have to handle it. Let's go. You can explain on the way."

Nodding, Shizune jumped to the next building with Naruto and Jiraiya following her.

"Orochimaru believes that Tsunade can heal his arms, and she seems to believe so as well." Shizune began.

"The arms from his soul were severed by an S-ranked fuinjutsu technique. Only a medical ninja of Tsunade's skill could even hope to heal his arms." Jiraiya commented.

"He offered to resurrect my uncle and her brother if she healed him." Shizune said softly.

"That bastard…." Jiraiya said furiously.

"What's going on?" Naruto asked.

"I told you about the curse that the necklace supposedly has on it. The first person that she lost to it was her younger brother Nawaki. You're kind of like him. The second person that she lost to it was her fiancé, Dan. He was Shizune's uncle." Jiraiya quickly explained. "Only a true bastard would use such a means to manipulate someone."

"We'd better hurry then." Naruto said as he pushed forward more quickly.

"He's right about that." Jiraiya agreed, receiving a nod from Shizune.

* * *

When the trio finally found Tsunade, she was outside of the city fighting Orochimaru and Kabuto with craters everywhere around them. Kabuto had just used Tsunade's fear of blood when Shizune threw a smoke bomb between them and they used the body flicker technique to appear in the cloud of smoke.

As the smoke faded, Kabuto and Orochimaru looked between them warily. A crippled Sannin and a jonin level shinobi against a healthy Sannin, a drugged Sannin, a jonin level kunoichi, and a chunin was not quite a fair fight.

"It's been a long time, my old friend." Orochimaru said with a twisted grin.

"Long time indeed." Jiraiya agreed. "Not long enough though…."

Orochimaru did not even respond to his old teammate's words.

"Glare at me all you want, Uzumaki." Kabuto said as he saw Naruto giving him a 'go to hell' look.

"Naruto, protect Tsunade." Jiraiya said, glancing at Naruto. "Shizune, you handle Kabuto. I'll fight off Orochimaru."

Though Naruto did not like the sound of sitting on the sidelines, he did not argue. He had fought against Orochimaru before, and the Sannin had merely played with him.

In an instant, the drugged Sannin went after the crippled Sannin while the two medical ninja began a fast and fierce battle. It quickly became obvious that Jiraiya and Shizune did not have the upper hand though.

After about ten minutes of fighting, Kabuto knocked Shizune unconscious and approached Naruto and Tsunade with a kunai drawn.

"Move out of the way, Naruto." Kabuto said as he readied himself. "I won't hesitate to kill you if you refuse."

"No can do." Naruto said as he began to build up his chakra without forming a hand sign.

"You do not have it in you to stop me. Unlike Sasuke, you lack talent." Kabuto taunted before he charged at Naruto and tried to run him through with the kunai.

Naruto quickly drew a kunai and with his left hand and blocked Kabuto's attack as his gathered his chakra in a spinning blue ball in his right hand. "Rasengan" he said as he slammed the ball into Kabuto's stomach before the medical ninja could even react.

'Amazing….' Tsunade thought as Kabuto flew backwards. She barely noticed his hand touching Naruto's chest before he flew back though.

Naruto suddenly collapsed on his knees as he felt pain fill his chest. Then, everything went black.

* * *

The next thing Naruto knew, he was waking up with Tsunade leaning over him and her necklace was on him. There was no sign of Kabuto or Orochimaru around either.

"What happened?" he asked with a groan.

"You won the bet, but Kabuto hit you in the heart with a chakra scalpel. You'll be okay. Then, Tsunade went berserk, knocked Kabuto a couple hundred feet and helped me fight Orochimaru." Jiraiya answered with a grin as he looked down at Naruto from his other side. "Kabuto was too weak to move though. You hit him with a pretty good one."

"I also agreed to become Hokage after we kicked Orochimaru's ass out of here." Tsunade said as she looked at Naruto with a small smile. "So be glad. I'm your new boss, and you fought to protect me. I'd say you're making up for your lousy first impression."

That caused Naruto to laugh weakly.

Though he had not expected to ever be happy to hear that she would become Hokage, he was. He had come to feel sympathy for her when he learned the truth about why she turned her back on the village. He did not know what he would have done if he had been in the same position, but he did not think that he would have gladly stayed without taking up a vice or two at the very least.

"So… when can we go back?" Naruto asked. "It's been a month since I've had Ichiraku's."

That caused Jiraiya to bust up laughing while Shizune and Tsunade looked at him curiously for a moment before joining Jiraiya. They did not understand why it was funny, but they got the feeling that it was.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Thanks for reading. I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint too much.

But anyways, this is the concluding chapter of the Search for Tsunade Arc. Next chapter will begin the Sasuke Retrieval Arc, though the mission won't begin next chapter.


	9. Epilogue

Author's Note: Originally, many chapters were intended for this fic. Things have changed though. I have decided to end this fic here and now with an epilogue. I will wrap things up here. If you don't like the way I decided to end it, then message me and I'll let you do your own version of it. I don't really care about this story anymore.

In addition to that, For Want of a Nail and Rebirth of Uzumaki are being placed on back burner for now. My grandmother passed away recently, and it has affected me tremendously. While I am either going to write a new Naruto fic or venture into the Bleach or NarutoxBleach fandoms, writing For Want of a Nail and Rebirth of Uzumaki are much harder than I expected with the recent happenings of my life. I have no intention of abandoning anything, but I might not touch my "in-progress" fics until Late March-April of this year.

Now, on to the epilogue.

* * *

**Epilogue**

Naruto looked out to the horizon as he waited for his teacher to meet him. They were not scheduled to leave yet, but he had wanted to get a move on early.

He idly touched his left shoulder and winced. The after effects of the Chidori through his shoulder were still present, despite the fact that Sasuke had used the lightning based assassination technique a mere three days earlier.

A week after Naruto had brought Tsunade back to the village and his teammate had been healed from the effects of Itachi's genjutsu, Naruto was given his first mission as a chunin in command of a team. That team had composed of Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi, Neji Hyuga, Tenten, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame. Their mission had been simple. They were to capture Sasuke Uchiha, who had left the village in the company of four Sound shinobi, and return him to the village, preferrably alive.

The mission had not exactly gone all that well, but Naruto's decision to bring two people from each team, outside of his own team, ended up being a very good thing.

The first opponent that they had faced was named Jirobo. If Choji was chubby, then he was fat. Plain and simple. He could utilize earth style ninjutsu and absorb chakra though, which made him quite difficult to defeat.

Knowing that they had to face four enemies, along with Sasuke if it came down to it, Naruto had Shikamaru and Choji stay behind while the rest went onward. After all, those two had exceptional team work.

The second opponent that they had faced was named Kidomaru. He seemed to be part spider and even had a few extra arms. In addition to that, he could used some special type of chakra based web. It was for that reason that Naruto had Neji Hyuga and Shino Aburame stay behind to fight the strange ninja.

Moving onward, Naruto, Kiba, and Tenten encountered the last remaining members of the group that called themselves the Sound Four. Their leader, a light haired ninja named Sakon, ended up getting seperated along with Kiba by a trap that the latter set. So, it came down to Naruto and Tenten facing the foul mouthed, red headed kunoichi by the name of Tayuya.

Before a fight could begin, someone interrupted, though. A fifth Sound shinobi showed up and took Sasuke away from them, ordering Tayuya to kill them.

As much as Naruto hated it, he and Tenten split up. He had faced Tayuya while Tenten headed after the other shinobi.

The only relief was that Naruto was able to incapacitate Tayuya through the use of a carefully placed paper bomb. By the time Tenten reached her opponent, Naruto's fight was over with, and he had begun to head towards her.

Naruto had arrived at Tenten's fight with the ninja, a bone user named Kimmimaro, just in time to see Sasuke run away and Rock Lee to show up.

With Lee and Tenten there to fight the bone user, Naruto had moved on to one of the most difficult fights in his life.

At the Valley of the End, the place where Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju had fought many years earlier, Naruto Uzumaki had faced Sasuke Uchiha in combat.

At the end of the fight, Naruto had used the fox's chakra to form a one-tailed cloak while Sasuke used the second state of his Cursed Mark. The statues of Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha had been almost completely destroyed. In addition to that, Naruto had broken every single bone in Sasuke's body, or close to it.

Just like he said he would.

He then proceeded to drag the Uchiha's ass back to the village, though it was slow progress since the Uchiha had broken one of his legs during the fight, along with inflicting the aforementioned Chidori wound in his left shoulder.

The good news that Naruto received when he arrived in the village was that his mission had been a success and none of his comrades had even received major wounds. The bad news was that Sakura was very upset with him for completely ending Sasuke's career as a ninja. Not even Tsunade could heal _that_ many broken bones and still ensure that he could remain a ninja. Hell, Lee's surgery had been _safer_ than the one that Sasuke would have had to undergo to reach one hundred percent.

Naruto shook his head away from such thoughts as he felt a hand touch his shoulder. He looked to his right and saw Jiraiya there.

"You ready, kid?" Jiraiya asked.

Following the mission, Jiraiya had offered Naruto the opportunity to go on a three year training trip with him. His answer was surprisingly obvious.

"Yeah, I am." Naruto said.

* * *

Author's Note: And that's a wrap. I wrote this in the document manager on the site, so it probably has a few spelling errors to say the least.

Anyways, I would like to apologise to everyone that was expecting more from this story. I just couldn't do it though.


End file.
